Shattered Soul
by JDZ
Summary: In the Alaskan wilderness the Denali school is trying to cope with the murder of one of its students, and one young man is trying to deal with the death of his sister. But what actually happened that night? Evan knows, but can't remember... New Characters
1. Outrageous Fortune

AN/  
Disclaimer - I think it is pretty obvious that I don't own Harry Potter, or anything associated with those wonderful books and movies. Please no lawsuits, I have no money...

I labeled this Fic as a PG-13 to try and stay on the safe side, I doubt that I am beyond PG, but let me know maybe I am mistaken.

Hello everyone,  
I am currently looking for a beta for this fiction. Now unless there is a huge reason to, I am currently going to avoid cannon characters. Personally I believe that there is a tremendous amount of great fanfiction out there using those characters, and I wanted to try something different. Here you will see world of JK Rowling, but a different place, and different people. I promise, NONE of my characters is more powerful than Dumbledore, no one will face Voldemort, and I will endeavor to avoid as many stereo types as possible... that being said, On with the show.

Shattered Soul  
Chapter 1  
Outrageous Fortune

The cold October air was tinged with the scent of snow and wood smoke. This high in the mountains the air was crisp and clear. Had there been a witness somewhere in that forest he or she might have barley hear the sounds of conflict through the thick canopy of trees. The muffled noises could have been anything from some animals fighting to a couple of students playing in the woods. The forest continued it nocturnal business blissfully unaware of sinister happenings, until a scream rent the quiet, a horrifying sound ripped from the depths of a young man's soul. The forest was plunged into silence by that noise, as if all its inhabitants could tell that tonight marked a turning point. Tonight a young boy's mind was pushed beyond its limits, and snapped.

4 miles away in the faculty lounge of the Denali Academy during a late night staff meeting; Headmaster Joshua Orinson suddenly grabbed his head as a wave of dizziness passed through him. The potions Master Stephan Williams caught him before he could stumble and looked at him with concern.

"Joshua, you ok?"

"Fine, fine… disturbance in the force." Orinson muttered with a wry smile.

"What's that?" asked the potions professor looking more than a little confused.

"Stephan, you really should consider a Muggle Studies course"

"I'm a professor!"

"Exactly"

The Denali Academy was a small mostly unheard of school of witchcraft and wizardry, and that was the way it wanted to stay. There was even a memory charm associated with the school that affects those who hear about it but don't need to. People tend to forget about the place, wizards and muggles alike, unless you happen to be one of select few students accepted, or fewer still professors employed. This is not because the magic's taught in the Academy were wrong or dark, but they did tend to teach skills mostly forgotten by today's mainstream magic users. Though that is not to say the place was backward regarding teaching new advancements, no indeed, they simply still retained knowledge lost to much of the wizarding world and saw to it that this knowledge was passed onto those most capable of practicing. Entrance Criteria to the Academy where vague, but the teachers had many guesses, the most popular is that the magicked slate on which new students names would appear chose those children with the strongest ties to the elemental nature of magic. This does not mean that the student body of the Academy was the most powerful in the wizarding world, but rather, those here could feel the power of magic as a physical presence within and without. Indeed there even now were quite a number of children who had problems performing simple spells, and would probably never have much in the way of magical strength, but even these where keenly aware of the use of magic, and it is that sensitivity that was trained to the utmost in this school. The best students even stopped using wands for most spells by their fifth year, and only used them for ritualized magic or when they need every bit of focus and strength. Interestingly enough the Denali academy had never in its long history turned out a single witch or wizard who went dark, though some were decidedly less than upstanding. That too spawned different theories of entrance criteria. Nestled in the mountains hidden somewhere in the wilds of Alaska the Denali academy was something of an oddity in wizarding schools there was no separation of students beyond the obvious difference in years. The dormitories were simply divided girls and boys, and each student got their own small room. The children came from many different backgrounds from all over the US Muggle-born, Pureblood; it made no difference here, what mattered was the magic, and the willingness to learn.

The morning of the 8th of October dawned, and though the school at large had no idea yet of the events on the preceding evening the Teachers knew what had been found if not what had happened. Fran Dorman, the Transfigurations professor, found a first year boy Evan Schuler early that morning in the middle of a clearing. The clearing he was found in showed signs of a horrific fight and at least two dead bodies. There was blood all over the ground and when tallied up the number of pieces seemed to equal at least two people, but there may have been more, and perhaps more horrible, was that one of those bodies definitely belonged to Danielle Schuler, Evan's twin sister.

In the Teacher's Lounge the atmosphere was tense and grief stricken. The entire Faculty had turned out for the review of the situation. Joshua Orinson was not what most people thought of when the phrase Headmaster is uttered. Joshua was young compared to his equivalents in other schools, barely 50 years old. Even his hair was the wavy brown of a younger man just barely showing a touch of silver. His youth and energy seemed to have deserted him this day, his somewhat large nose showed red from a recent bout of grief. It was no secret that the children of this school were dear to him and these specific children maybe a little more dear. The tall headmaster looked bent by the weight of the tragedy, and terrible grief and anger was reflected in his storm grey eyes.

The headmaster, Joshua Orinson addressed them in a deep somber voice that normally held joy and no little mischievousness. "What we know so far is very little, young Danielle was last seen yesterday afternoon as she left for her weekly nature hike, and last night Evan received an owl telling him where he could find her. Who the owl was sent from is anyone's guess as is what happened when he entered that clearing. The boy doesn't even remember anything, not even the owl he received, though his friends said he looked surprised and scared on receiving it. The note, which I have, simply tells him to come to clearing alone and gives him directions to find it. The poor lad has been given a sleeping draught and hopefully will have at least a days rest before he has to come to terms with life."

Stephan Williams, the young potions master, stood up. "Josh, who do you think the note was sent by, who kidnapped the girl, and why?"

Orinson looked even older and more bent by the world as he replied, "I can only suppose that it was a group of death eaters seeking entrance to our school, perhaps to learn our secrets, as to why they chose these children to torment that should be obvious. Now if you will excuse me I need to write to Mrs. Gutman."

The Teacher's Lounge was silent after the Head made his announcement, and no few of them looked like they would dearly love for the choice to be a little more obvious.

Evan Schuler was a normal boy for a wizard he had brown hair, electric blue eyes, and was of average build, though a bit on the tall side. He and his sister lived in a ministry hostel for orphans, as their parents where killed two years ago. Doug and Sarah Schuler had been normal people in the wizarding world, who unfortunately found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Evan had heard about it from the caseworker, she told him that a group of Dark Wizards had busted in on the restaurant where his parents were celebrating their anniversary. Those wizards had then proceeded to murder people at seeming random until the Aurors had shown up to stop them. For a long time Evan and Danielle thought about trying to find those Wizards, but this was only a fantasy. Neither of them were a Harry Potter, or Albus Dumbledore, able to fight evil. They were just normal kids. After all look at their parents, nice normal bankers for Gringotts, not a heroic bone in their bodies, even their deaths had been happenstance. Wrong Place, Wrong Time. Is that why Danielle was dead now? Could Evan's family just be wiped from the earth because of chance? Evan knew his sister, and twin was dead, but it still wasn't real. The nurse Madam Beatty said he was in shock. If that was the case he wasn't sure he wanted to come out of it. At least here and now he could deal with being on his own, he wasn't so sure he was up to it without that feeling of fuzziness. He didn't remember anything that had happened last night, he just came to himself in the hospital wing, and Professor Orinson told him when he woke up that he was now alone in the world. He thought back to the fateful day that he and Danielle found they were alone.

Evan was a little confused at all the excitement this morning. Last night their parents hadn't come home and though Lucy their baby sitter had told them nothing was wrong, they knew when they went to sleep that there was a problem. Mommy and Daddy had never come home late in all their young lives. His breakfast was late and Mommy still wasn't there to make his lunch for school. The door opened and suddenly what seemed like a hundred people where running in and out of his home. Danielle came down the stairs calling for Daddy but neither he nor Mommy where answering. Danielle and Evan looked a lot a like, even though they obviously where not identical twins they might have been mistaken for them. They both had wavy brown hair, ice blue eyes, and the same upswept noses; they really looked a lot alike… except for the whole boy/girl thing.

Crisp Chicago autumn air blew through the front door as the ministry witches and wizards came into to assess the household. The children were seated around the kitchen table staring into the fire on the hearth. A kindly looking ministry witch came around in front of them both. Her brown eyes held a world of sorrow in them as she looked at the children. She looked like the textbook description of a Grandmother. Though unbent by age she looked better suited to baking cookies than the Aurors robes she wore now. Of course her appearance was one of the main reasons she was there. It generally fell to her to deal with any children involved in crimes. She had hoped that with the fall of "You -know-who" so many years ago she wouldn't have to face a task like today's, but Deatheaters still exist, and from time to time still cause mayhem and murder. Last night it had been a bit of both, and now she had to deal with the aftermath, these two children.

"Dearies" she said as she knelt in front of the twins. "I'm sorry children; your parents won't be coming home." The children looked at her curiously for a moment, and then Danielle spoke up, "Ma'am? Where are they? Are you going to take us to them?"

"No, child I'm afraid I can't" The kindly old woman looked at the children very seriously. "I'm afraid that that there was an accident, and well children, your parents were hurt, hurt very badly…" the lady's eyes drifted closed as if to keep the pain at bay, "children there is no good way to tell you this, so I will just come out and say it, your parents have died."

Evan looked at the nice lady trying to understand her words. He knew what dying was, after all their grandparents, had died last year in a car wreck, but his parents didn't drive.

"How did they die ma'am?" Evan asked.

"Don't worry about that for now, let's get you children someplace where you can be looked after. "

That day was the last they saw of their house. They got all of their toys, and where told all their parents belongings where being kept safe.

They were taken to a wizarding orphanage, which was much nicer than their muggle counterparts. The orphanage was from the outside a small three story walk up near the lake in the heart of Chicago. On the inside it was very different. The main floor was take up by classrooms, play area and the keeper's quarters, while the remaining two floors of the building where the children's quarters. Walking up to the second floor you could see a dozen doorways on each floor. Each doorway though didn't just lead to an apartment, the children had large spaces just of their own, Danielle and Evan shared an apartment almost as big as their home had been. The next two years passed mostly uneventfully. The twins became very insular and didn't really make any friends. Those children who tried to get close usually found themselves perpetually on the outside looking in. Though they both missed their parents horribly at least they had each other, and they frequently saw the old lady and started calling her nana. The lady's real name is Mrs. Rebecca Gutman, but as she enjoyed being a substitute grandmother, nana she became. Nana helped the children work through a great deal of their grief over the next two years in the orphanage. She would bring them cookies, and candies whenever she visited.

On that fateful day in July when they both got letters inviting them to Denali academy, she took them both out celebrating to the toy store, pizza parlor and after that to the ice cream shop. She made no secret of the fact that she was tremendously proud of them being accepted into her own Alma matter, which incidentally was also where their parents went to school.

"Ok, loves let's get over to the book shop we have to make sure we get everything."

They had arrived in Superior City early that day and where planning to spend the week, but Nana wanted to get all of the shopping out the way first, so they could concentrate on the business of enjoying the holiday. Superior City was an entirely wizarding city in the middle of lake superior. The muggle shipping lanes gave it wide berth, and it wasn't on any maps in the muggle world, for all intents and purposes this ten square mile strip of land may as well not exist, but here was where wizards built buildings

The children gawked around endlessly, as they saw people on broomstick, and families on carpet soar around the town looking for a place to land at this or that store. While they had grown up in the wizarding world there was something decidedly magical about an entire wizarding city. Especially to the two orphans who hadn't spent much of their lives outside the confines of Chicago. They hadn't even been to a Quidditch match, their parents had never wanted them to go. Now they were faced with a dizzying array of new sights and sounds. Over the next week they spent the holiday taking rides in Zonko's Wild Wizards World Amusement Park. They loved playing in Martin Miggs land where all the children got to play with the levitating water slides, bumper brooms, and Danielle's favorite the Avalanche, which literally simulated being caught in a high mountain avalanche with all of the bouncing around and rolling, but without the danger of broken bones or dying. Evan was partial to the Atlantis tour, really a mock up of Atlantis on the bottom of lake Superior, but still a lot of fun.

Evan broke from his reverie to discover that he was being hugged in a rather choking manner. Nana had apparently just arrived, and was doing her level best to break all of his ribs.

"Nana?" surprised to see her here so quickly.

"Yes, dear one I came as soon as I could."

She looked into his eyes and saw a reflection of her own grief, and more there. His eyes showed a soul lost to the world, and wound that might never be healed. She knew that his sister had been everything to him, and to loose his parent as nine years of age then a twin at eleven, well she couldn't imagine what he was thinking. In a way it was a great mercy that he couldn't remember what had happened, perhaps it was his minds way of protecting itself.

She hugged him to her, and whispered "I know sweetheart, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm going to miss her too"

At that moment, with the one person left in his life hugging him Evan's grief cut through the fog. He still had no recollection of the events last night, but now he understood; he was now alone. He broke down and wept on his nana's shoulder as she too shared his grief. They stayed in that embrace for hours just taking an receiving comfort, but each knowing that they may never come to terms with this.

AN/  
So, what did you think? liked it? hated it? any serious problems so far?


	2. A Tale Told by a Fool?

AN/

Disclaimer…. Do I look rich? No? then I guess Harry Potter isn't mine… drat.

Updated… The Dueling Club is in ADDITION to a preexisting Dueling Team…

Chapter 2

A Tale Told by a Fool

The new day dawned gray and cold. Evan reflected that it was a fitting reflection of the state of his being. Evan woke still in the hospital wing Nana was still holding his hand though she had fallen asleep in the chair next to his bed. Very carefully he unwound his hand and crept out of bed. Sneaking across the infirmary was relatively easy. He didn't have an exact destination in mind he just felt the need to walk around and try to face the day. He found his robes, sneakers, and wand. He looked at it carefully remembering the day he and Danielle had both gotten them. Mr. Zephar of Zephar's Wands had been flatly surprised that both he and Danielle had been chosen by such similar wands. She had been compatible with a thirteen inch Redwood and Dragon Heartstring, while turned out to be a thirteen inch Sequoia and Dragon Heartstring. The same dragon had been used for both wands, which made dueling between the two a little difficult. Evan left the hospital wing and headed outside. He walked out onto the grounds wondering over to the lake. The near constant run off from the glaciers gave the water a beautiful aqua-marine color that both he and Danielle had admired when they arrived. Everything felt so pointless right now. He picked up a sharp edged rock and started to squeeze it in his hand. As he squeezed the rock he thought of Danielle and suddenly he felt something warm drip across his hand. He looked down mildly startled to see blood. It was almost a relief to feel pain, and to know that at least he was alive enough to feel it and bleed.

"EVAN!"

He started, and looked towards the voice. Standing there looking horrified was Rachel Johnson. Rachel was in his same year and had had lunch with Danielle and Evan on occasion. She was taller than Evan by about a head, and had long black hair, with matching eyes.

"What are you doing, what did you do to yourself!?"

"Nothing, it's just a little scratch." Though that wasn't quite true Evan was really in no mood to return to the hospital wing. He dropped the rock into a pocket of his robes and rinsed his hand in the lake. The water was shockingly cold and slowed the bleeding immediately. Looking at his hand he realized that the cuts were much deeper than he had originally though.

"A scratch huh, give it here", with that Rachel grabbed his hand and passed her wand over it whispered a quiet incantation and an orange glow enveloped Evan's hand. The pain immediately ceased, and when he looked at it all he could see was a roughly circular scar around his palm.

"thanks" Evan couldn't muster much gratitude but tried to at least be polite; after all Rachel was trying to help him.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry about your sister. Sorry, like such a stupid thing to say, but I am not sure what else there is, except that if you need anything, someone to talk to, yell at, whatever…" her voice trailed off

"Thanks again" Evan tried to put some more feeling into it. He knew that under almost any other circumstances he would be very touched by the sentiment, but at this point he still didn't have much emotional energy to spare.

Without warning Rachel reached out and hugged him. "Really when your ready to talk, I'm here"

As Evan looked out towards the lake he was unaware that at this point the headmaster was informing the rest of the student body of Danielles death, and having them prepare for the burning that evening.

The burning was an old tradition at the school, almost as old as the school itself. Whenever someone from the school, be it teacher or student passed away those left would gather in front of the school for a bonfire. Besides the obligatory wood for the fire all present where encouraged to write a farewell letter to the deceased for the fire to "deliver" to the spirit, or send the spirit on its way with positive wishes. It was an emotional catharsis for the staff and students and allowed everyone to say good bye to some extent. By tradition the person, student or faculty, who knew the deceased best would start the fire. Further tradition said that the fire should be kindled magically without the aid of a wand, though when the person kindling the fire was a first year this was rarely accomplished.

That evening the bonfire had been built all of the students notes where carefully placed in with the wood for the fire to speed them to their destination, and both Nana and Evan stood in front of it in the center of all gathered there.

"Sweetheart, do you want me to do this, it may be too hard for you."

"No, Nana. Let me try first, if I can't do it right then you should."

Professor Rose leaned close to Evan and whispered to him. "Don't worry lad, just like in class, feel the magic within reach deep into and then focus it with the command" The charms teacher had no idea if Evan was up to this, but he was equally certain that if any first year could Evan would.

Evan stared at the pile of wood many times taller than he was. He felt down into that well spring of grief and anger, he though of his sister, his twin, who he would now never get to see again, stared deep into the wood, and felt the power rise to his call.

Certainly many of those present expected a screamed command, and a wand flourish to be accompanied by a small flame beginning to lick at the wood near the boy's eye level. This isn't what happened.

"You may begin Evan" Orinson spoke clearly from the crowd, and a hush fell over those assembled.

Into that silence a hoarse whisper commanded "Incendio!"

The fire that blossomed was not small, nor was it exactly "normal" flame colored. Fifty foot white flames roared into life as if the bonfire was made of magnesium, not wood. Evan continued to stare at the flames feeding them all his rage and hatred, and they got taller, and hotter, yet his rage was undiminished and continued to grow, when they finally dwarfed the castle behind the students, Professor Orinson placed his hand on Evan's shoulder and whispered to him.

"Enough lad, you've done and more than done your duty to this."

With that Evan relaxed and nearly collapsed as the flamed disappeared without a trace, everything within the circle of fire had been consumed and even the ground beneath it looked like glass, so hot had the flame been there hadn't even been any smoke, just the conflagration that left nothing behind.

"Professor, I think I want to go lie down now if that's ok with you? Nana, will you be ok now?"

"Yes dear you go have a lie down" his nana whispered hoarsely.

As Evan made his way back to the school the teachers and Mrs. Gutman retired to the teachers lounge.

Orinson addressed those assembled before him in the staff room quietly.

"Before any of you ask, the answer is yes that fire you witnessed was purely the result of young Evan."

"Are you saying that my adoptive grandson performed that feat unaided?" Mrs. Gutman was understandably perturbed.

"Headmaster, I am worried about Evan rather more than you might guess" Stephan Williams announced. "He appears to be harboring a tremendous amount of anger, did anyone else notice what happened to the ground beneath that bonfire?"

At everyone's negative response he sighed. "Though some of you no doubt noticed that the fire was hot enough to fused the ground it was actually hot enough to create a glass pool three feet below the surface. While not an impossible feat it does require a certain amount of emotion behind it. Evan must allow himself to grieve and feel. Right now he is shutting everything away, his rage is building, and he needs an outlet. I would have suggested allowing him to spend himself entirely on the bonfire, but I agree if that had gone on much more he would have hurt someone, or attracted the notice of the space station."

Fran Dorman looked at him "Do you have any suggestions for getting him to vent safely? Perhaps there is some way we can encourage him into some of the more physical aspects of magic?"

"It seems to me that with the return of "You-Know-Who" we might want to expand our Defense against Dark Arts curricula. Perhaps we should include physical defense as well as the magical, we could induct him into the dueling team. I am sure than young master Evan will be interested in that. Perhaps start a Dueling club for the rest of the school." Joshua looked sadly at the staff and continued "unfortunately I can't see any major breakthroughs on his repressed rage until he regains his memories."

Evan was walking through the forest, almost running. He wasn't certain what he was going to find at the end of this path but something told him he wouldn't like it. His speed along the path started to increase, though he didn't feel like it he was soon zipping along the path at a running speed, then faster, and faster until the trees where blurring to his eyes. He arrived at the clearing, it had to be the one where Danielle was, the moon was shining bright overhead as his eye scanned the clearing they fell on Danielle's face, she appeared to be lying on the ground. She looked at him and spoke, "Why Evan?, does it mean anything? Is that all there is to life? Randomness? Is it really a tail told by a fool?" Just then Evans eyes refocused and saw that Danielle's head wasn't attached to a body.

"NOOOOO" Screaming himself into wakefulness Evan is happy that students get private rooms here, he really wouldn't want to have to explain that nightmare to a roommate.

Evan climbed out of bed knowing that his sleep was shot. He decided to take the advice of one of those psychologists he had been forced to see.

Dr. Carter had been very clear for once: "when you have a nightmare you need to re-ground yourself in the waking world, go for a walk, get something to eat, anything to make a clean break with the dream and reestablish the real."

Taking that sage advice to heart Evan set out for the Kitchen, though most schools had rigidly enforced curfews the staff at Denali acknowledged that they wanted to raise responsible adults so they allowed things like trips to the kitchen, where a kettle of hot coco always was there waiting.

As Evan walked into the kitchen there was a slight pop, he turned his head but saw nothing there but an empty pot in the sink. One of the house-elves immediately ran over to him, it was Rainy, she was the house-elf who had unofficially adopted the twins. Most of the elves attached themselves to a student or staff member and generally saw after that person for their tenure at Denali, of course all of the elves chipped in for meals and general upkeep of the place. Rainy happened to be one of the free elves, it was a tradition in the US that since the emancipation proclamation that all elves be offered freedom when they reached majority status and every few years after that. Basically the American Wizarding community was very similar to the Muggle community in its abhorrence of slavery, and desire for freedom. That isn't to say that all American Wizards wanted free house elves, and complete acceptance of all wizards and witches, but those that objected usually where the "dark wizards". At least that was how Danielle and Evan had thought about it. Rainy was now his alone he supposed, he looked down into her enormous violet eyes.

"Hi Rainy, I was just coming down for some hot cocoa."

"Is master Evan alright sir?" She squeaked as two fat tears fell from her eyes. "I heard what happened to Miss Danielle, and I is so so sorry."

"I know Rainy, look uh would you mind collecting Danielle's things, to send back to our Nana? I know I have to do it, but I just can't really look at her stuff right now."

"I will do that right now. Now you drinks your hot cocoa and have a Brownie".

"Evan?" A new voice startled him.

Evan spun around to see Rachel standing at the Kitchen doorway.

She looked at him "I had Zipper keep an eye out for when you came down, I wanted to see how you are, you know after the burning."

"Fine." Evan lied.

"You aren't, but you could be you know. I am sorry to be so pushy but I know a little about what you are going through you know."

"What do you mean?"

"I was supposed to attend Hogwarts, in England, with my Sister Tracy, but our home was attacked. In case you didn't know I'm Muggle-born. Anyway, I survived, but only me. I got a letter the next day inviting me to Denali year round, and headmaster Orinson offered to be my Guardian, until I graduated. That was last year. Kind of funny to be a first year here, when I have been hanging around the school so long. Anyway I just wanted you to know that I know what it is like to loose a sibling, and parents, not a twin, but I… I understand at least a portion."

"Rachel I am sorry, your sister was killed by Deatheaters too??"

"It's all right really, I wasn't fishing for sympathy, just letting you know you aren't alone, and I don't think that I hurt worse than you, or anything stupid like that, just that well you really can talk to me."

"I'm not sure I should talk to anyone right now, I mean I don't even remember what happened, and besides it seems like everyone that is close to me or my family dies."

"STOP IT! Stop it right there, NOTHING that happened is your fault! You can't blame yourself for the evil actions of others! Remember He Who Must Not Be Named' is back and death eaters are more active. Haven't you read what happened during the last war? There probably wasn't a single family who didn't loose at least one person. Do you understand me?"

"So what is it then? Is Shakespeare right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Have you ever read Shakespeare? My mom loved his works and left me a leather-bound book, Danielle and I have been reading it since they died, we needed a lot of help with understanding it, but one line I remember went something like, Life is a tale told by a fool, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' Is that what life is? Have I lost everyone in the world to me for nothing?"

"No, I don't believe so, I think everything happens for a reason even if we aren't sure what that reason is."

"Do you have faith Rachel?"

Rachel wasn't sure how to answer that question, so she looked at him and saw the tears streaming down his face.

"Faith isn't something that comes easy to me, I know I am still just a kid, but I feel like a thousand years old, I envy people who have faith, they can believe what they need to, to get up in the morning."

Rachel reached out to him, and gave him a hug, surprised to find that they where almost exactly the same height.

She looked him in the eyes and whispered "maybe you need to be with someone who has enough faith for two? Come on Evan we both need sleep."

As the two children walked back towards the dormitories, Joshua Orinson came out of the shadowed Kitchen corner and made his way back to his office with a slight sad smile on his face and a tear tracking down his cheek. "Lad, there really is a reason, for everything that has happened."

The next morning dawned cool and grey, though not quite in the rain forests of the southern Alaska the area of Denali Alaska certainly got its fair share of "Liquid Sunshine". As the students gathered for breakfast the headmaster stood up.

"Children I have a couple of announcements to make. First I would like to announce the Dueling club it is going to be for those not fortunate enough to be accepted into Denali's dueling team. There will is of course the first year's slot on the Team to fill as well. It seemed to Evan that Professor Orinson was directing his comment to him. Well the Dueling club sounded like fun, even if he didn't make the team, so after breakfast he walked over to the notice board and signed up. He saw that the first meeting was today after classes.

"You think I should sign up too?"

Evan turned to find Rachel there.

"Yeah why not, I know that Danielle wanted to do something like this, just wait till… uh… yeah" Suddenly the happy excited feeling that had been bubbling up in his stomach suddenly popped. He immediately walked away to his first class with Rachel trailing quietly behind him. His mind wasn't on classes at all, and when he was trying to transfigure a beetle into a button he accidentally turned Professor Dorman's hair into a hedgehog, he still wasn't sure how. During potions he wound up creating an engorgement formula, instead of the sleeping draught he had been going for, and worst was charms, the simple flame charm had somehow incinerated his desk. He only came out of his funk during the Magic Affinity course. This was the class both he and Danielle had loved the most. Nana had given them a demonstration by holding out her hand and having the salt shaker jump into it without wand or words. Their professor Larry Tolten stood in front of the class and asked them to think of the simplest spell they knew. Jeremy Davidson right in front of him piped up "Lumos".

"Good, ok class I want everyone to get out your wands, and say Lumos, I want you to feel how the magic feels as it flows through you and into your wand. Once you think you know what that feels like I want you to then try to recreate that feeling without saying the word."

Evan closed his eyes, spoke the incantation and actually felt the magic flow through him. Following some instinct he didn't know he had Evan then put his wand away and imagined the same feeling, he suddenly heard a gasp from his right. He looked up into the sun, or at least a bright yellow ball floating at about eye level in front of him.

"EXCELLENT! Look class, observe Mr. Schuler's light. Accomplished without wand or incantation. This is what we are striving for."

Evan banished the light, and then lit it again; he started doing it so quickly that it was like one of those muggle strobe lights. He then thought about how Danielle would have loved this. He shook his head, and sat quietly for the rest of the class. Thus after classes it was a fully discouraged Evan that came down to the dueling area where they where grouped by age group. Professor Orinson happened to be the one teaching the dueling class.

"Now children I would like to teach you the first and most basic defense spell I know, it is Expelliarmus. I want you to break into pairs and take turns."

At this point Rachel walked over to him and looked at him with her head cocked to the side. He nodded.

It was very clear quite quickly that he was better at this than she was. He learned and successfully performed the charm on the third try, while she was still getting red sparks from her wand at the end of the session. As a last experiment he closed his eyes, like he had in Affinity he concentrated on the feeling and then quietly said "Expelliarmus". At his point the four students around him and Rachel all lost their wands. It seemed that when not directed by his wand the spell went out in a circle, though it seemed quite weak. As soon as the club was over for the evening he told Rachel he would meet her down for dinner, and headed to his room for a shower.

As he walked down to dinner he was confronted by something that appeared out of a nightmare. There was a group of fourth year girls egging on four fourth year boys, they all seemed to be part of the pure-blood clique, and they where picking on Rachel, they had already disarmed her and hit her with a couple of jinxes, now they were making fun of her accent, calling her a mudblood, and asking why she was spared the death she obviously deserved, and a hundred other hateful things. "HEY, YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!"

Evan jumped in front of Rachel who, through sobbing told him not to worry.

One of the fourth year boys looked at him and sneered. "Aww look at the widdle baby firsty defending his girlfriend."

It was the sound of her crying and the baby talk that must have triggered something in him. Instead of being in the hallway of Denali, he was suddenly in the forest and the fourth year had turned into an adult death-eater with his wand out.

"NOOO" Suddenly without drawing his wand he screamed the first spell that came to his mind "EXPELIARMUS". With that all of the surrounding children where knocked to the ground small explosions seemed to take place in any childs hand that had a wand, as the wands themselves shattered in a burst of flame. The children where thrown into walls or driven into the floor with bone crushing force, in fact there where several snaps as from dry wood as the spells effects where felt.

"YOU LEAVE HER ALONE! NEVER TOUCH OR TALK TO HER AGAAAAAIN!"

With that Evan gathered Rachel into a hug and told her over and over that nothing would hurt her. This was how Orinson found them as he walked down towards dinner.

"Evan? Rachel? What has happened here?"

After Evan filled him in on the whole story he pack the lot of them off to the infirmary.

"Headmaster, what are we going to do? You realize we have a serious problem don't you?" Professor Dorman was still facing the full infirmary beds. "We'll have to pay for replacement wands, and there will be calls to expel young Evan, though from all accounts he simply tried to disarm them. Not to mention that I would dearly love to know how a first year managed that in the first place!"

"Well to your last question it is my opinion that the night Danielle died something happened to Evan that blew open all of his potential. As you know we grow into our potential as we learn, something happened to short circuit that process with Evan. I think what we are seeing is nearly all of his potential, perhaps not all of it, but without any of the careful restraints that training places in us, and without any of the preconceived notion as to what is possible. Fran I think this was probably the best outcome we could have hoped for. Those children won't bother either young Rachel or Evan, and at least he is reaching out to another person, I had worried about him closing himself off. "

"The BEST outcome?? How can you say that? Joshua do I need remind you that there are three children with broken spines, four with broken arms and one poor boy with every bone in his body showing some kind of fracture; Including the bones of the inner ear. Of course by all accounts and his own admission he was the ringleader and had confronted Evan."

"Yes Fran, the best possible outcome, imagine if you will what it might have looked like had the first spell to pop into Evan's mind been "incendio"."

With that thought they both shivered and went their separate ways.

Inside the infirmary Rachel was sitting by her new found friends bed, Evan had passed out shortly after consoling her and telling Professor Orinson what had happened. The nurse Mrs. Tuttle had told her that he had merely over extended himself in magic and needed a rest to recuperate his resources. As she looked at the sleeping boy next to her she couldn't help but wonder what would come next. After all it wasn't everyday that a boy sent eight other people to the infirmary with serious injuries for teasing you. Still she kept thinking of an answer for him, there was a reason for everything, even if it wasn't clear at first what that reason was.


	3. Rose by any other name

Disclaimer… Nope I own a lot of things, but Harry Potter is not one of them.

AN/ This chapter starts to let us in on exactly what is going on with Evan… and the beginning of him making a place at school.

Chapter 3

Rose by any other name

When Evan woke up the in the early morning after literally disarming the fourth years of the pureblood clique without really any idea where he was. He looked around at the antiseptic white walls and came to the slow realization that he was in the infirmary, again. Unlike the last time he had woken up here this time he felt a comforting presence next to him. Evan slowly peeked open an eye and spotted Rachel asleep in the chair next to him, still holding his hand. Feeling relaxed for the first time since the Danielle died he slept again. Several hours later he woke again to see the peaceful face of the headmaster.

"Well Evan I have some good news and bad news for you. Which would you like first?"

"I think I would like the bad news sir"

"Somehow, Evan that doesn't surprise me. Well since you insist the bad news is that I want you to stay in the hospital wing one more night." The headmaster said this with a smile, and Evan smiled back, as bad news went in his short life this was nothing.

"The good news young Evan is that you have been selected as for the dueling team. There are six other students that have been chosen to represent the school, each of you has been chosen because you represent best what our school is trying to teach, a deep affinity for magic, at its most primal levels. There is a representative from each of the grades present in our school, as you have probably guessed you are the First Years representative, though I could probably have placed you anywhere."

"Sir, will the years duel one another in the tournaments?"

"The tournaments are done similarly to a fencing competition, each level fights out to determine the champion of that level, and then the those that come in first for their year will fight each other, so you for example would only fight with a different year group if you happen to be the overall first year winner."

"Sir, do you think it is possible?"  
"Well, Evan, though I admit I would be very surprised if you didn't do quite well, let's just say that you would be dueling against others with a great deal of experience, and honestly I have never seen a first year student get into even the Semi-Finals."

"I'll do my best for the school sir."

"I know you will son."

As the headmaster stood to leave he paused, and looked over at the young girl trying to hide in the shadows.

"Rachel, those that tormented you the other day have been disciplined, those that cast magic at you have been suspended, and those that egged it on have received a weeks worth of elf duty. Though I think Evan here punished them quite well to."

Rachel looked worried at this, "Professor, please don't punish Evan, he was really just trying to help me, please if he's going to be in trouble then…"

"Rachel, please don't worry" Orinson cut off her pleading, "Evan is not in trouble at all, really. Now children why don't you run off for breakfast and head to classes."

During breakfast Evan was handed a note with instruction to get to the Dueling Team's training area after class.

He looked with a little amusement as people gave Rachel very wide berth as she made her way over to sit next to him for breakfast.

"Are you ok?" He asked with obvious concern.

"Oh I'm fine, everyone seems to think that if they so much as look at me funny you are going to kill them."

Evan thought about this for a moment and nodded

"Good, then my message was properly delivered."

"EVAN, you can't be serious! Honestly you don't want people afraid of you!"

"Rachel, if it will keep you safe then yes I am completely serious. You are my friend and that means everything to me. I wanted to tell you that I got a flash back of the night that… well you know, but that moment when the 4th year spoke in baby talk I remembered a different face, I think it was one of those that killed Danielle."

"OK, then how about tomorrow we try to sketch it out and take it to the headmaster?"

"We can try I guess." Evan for the first time in her experience looked frightened, though whether he was frightened of the memories, the man, or of life without family Rachel couldn't tell.

"Rachel, I was serious though I am not going to let anything bad happen to you, and if anyone tries to hurt you I have no problem hurting them back." The intensity with which he spoke this made his eyes glow a fraction, and with that he patted her on the arm and mumbled something about getting his books.

Rachel shivered at the conviction in his tone, and had a brief moment of pity for the next person to hassle her while Evan was with her. She also suddenly had an idea of what it must feel like to be in the presence of an extremely large well trained attack dog that answers to you by choice.

The rest of the day past swiftly with Evan almost in a daze about being on the school's Dueling Team. Evan stopped at 4:30 in front of the large oak doors of the Dueling Teams practice area. Above the doors where the words "Denali Dueling Team, Silentium est Victoria"

"Like our motto Schuler?"

Evan spun around to face a tall and skinny sixth year.

"Hey there Schuler I'm John Rackly, I am the captain of the dueling team this year. Since there are way to many John's just call me Rackly. Well come on the password for our training are is now 'ALLEZ'" As he yelled the last word the doors swung open to reveal a large room mostly devoid of furniture. Against the far wall there was a line of about twelve mannequins. To the right against that wall there was what appeared to be twelve golf balls suspended by strings at approximately heart height. The other two walls had what appeared to be simple mirrors. The left hand wall of mirrors was broken up by another door, and it was through this door that Rackly lead Evan. Upon entering that room Evan was confronted with a state of the art exercise facility, including weights, treadmills and a lap pool, one of those small ones which you swim against a current.

"So Schuler here is what I want you to do, every morning before breakfast I want you down here for an exercise routine, and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night after class you and I will go over strategy, and after dinner we will practice dueling. After practice I will show you a wrap up routine for duelists focusing their efforts on accuracy and magical endurance. How does that sound?"

Evan's jaw had dropped halfway through this recitation and he now felt a bit faint at the amount of work he was going to have to put in.

"OK, so since now is the time to work on our dueling strategy I want to see what you can do and where what we can start to work out, so let us begin."

With that he turned back to the main room and said "Two Person Bout"

The room suddenly sprouted a raised platform two feet tall, five feet wide and approximately twenty feet long.

"All right Evan step up to line, and face me." Evan noticed there where four lines on the strip two in the middle, and one on either end. The whole strip was blocked out in a white line. The two lines in the middle were about six feet apart and the lines at the end where four feet from the edge of the strip.

"Now Evan I want you to look over at that wall." Rackly pointed to the long wall with mirrors on it. "TROPHIES!" suddenly the wall appeared to melt and reveal row upon row of championship trophies. "Evan, some of the finest duelers come from this school and that is all because we are trained in wandless magic, for most of us not using our wands limits us severely in the power we can apply to the spells, but let me tell you once you are trained up you will be able to cast two maybe even three spells simultaneously, and trust me that is enough to put most opponents in the defeated column. Now I saw the results of your expelliarmus and I know you cast an incendio without a wand, I think you might just have the raw material to be the finest duelist this school has seen." Pointing to the trophies Rackly continued, "and that is saying something. To begin with I want you first to try and start casting magic with your off hand without a wand, I don't care if it's a lumos spell I want you to see if you can cast two spells in close time wth each other if not at the same time. Observe what offhand casting can accomplish." Whit this Rackly turned to the mannequins and said "Number-One dodging opponent. Evan these mannequins are used to accurately portray what our hexes, jinxes and charms will do to another human being they also have a few different personalities, dodging opponent will attempt to dodge any spells that get thrown at it. Watch"

Rackly threw a disarming charm at the mannequin wich immediately sprang to the left to avoid it. "Now see the advantage of using the offhand as well"

Rackly used his wand to perform the disarming charm and made a twirling motion with his left hand fingers two jets of blue light sprung toward the mannequin the brighter from the wand and then the less intense one followed from his left hand a few moments after, the mannequin leapt to avoid the jet from his wand right into the disarming charm from his hand.

"You see? Now I want you to try and cast two spells like that, at me let's see if you can throw me off."

Evan thought for a minute and decided what he wanted to do.

Rackly put his foot on one the inner lines facing Evan and put his wand to his forehead in salute, drawing his wand down he performed a complicated curlicue design "that's my salute you can think of your own in time, but always put your wand to your forehead to your opponent and to the judges if there are any present, sign of respect and all that you know."

Evan placed his wand against his forehead and as he drew the wand down he allowed himself a small smile as he inscribed a stylized capital "D" in the air.

A voice echoed through the room that was neither boy. "Begin"

Almost without thinking Evan imagined his Lumos spell brightly in the face of Rackly, and right after threw an expelliarmous with his wand. The result was as if a camera flash went off right in Rackly's eyes and then the disarming charm hit him. He was thrown off his feet and his wand landed inches from Evans feet.

Evan was a little scared now, he knew that he was supposed to learn how to duel but he wasn't sure that what he did was right.

Rackly got slowly to his feet, "FAN-DAMN-TASTIC!! That was a PERFECT execution of a sound strategy! Now before you get overly confident let me ask you, where were you aiming for, you hit me on the left hand shoulder and almost missed me."

"Uh, I was aiming at you??"

"That's what I thought, let me tell you a story about a king who wanted to find the best archer in his land, he.."

"The fish's eye." Evan interrupted the parable; it was an old one his father taught him when he asked why he should always try for an "A" in school when he didn't need it.

"Exactly Evan, the fish's eye I want you always aiming for the fish's eye, you see those balls over there. This is how we practice our aim, so you know the stinging hex, ok these balls register the number of times you hit them with the stinging hex, watch."

Rackly pointed his wand at one of the balls and said "Fodio". The ball started to swing, and each time Rackly stung it the ball would rebound, for each hit a floating number over the ball would increment by one. "ok now you try."

"FODIO" Evan shouted pointing his wand at the same ball that Rackly used. Instead of being deflected though the ball was incinerated as the flash of violet light hit it.

Rackly stared at the limply hanging piece of blankly, this was not the normal reaction to a stinging hex, the hex was great for target practice in duels because it would feel like a mosquito bite at the targeted area, duels had been won with a well placed stinging hex, but it was mostly harmless, this reaction was not harmless.

"OK Evan, I think we need to work on a different drill, we are first going to have to teach you control over your power."

"Control over my power?"

"OK let's take this simply, there are basically two kinds of wizard in the world, the most common uses the magic that is contained in him or herself, the more rare kind gathers power from around them and focuses it. That kind of Wizard is generally more powerful and can last longer, because they are only using personal power to control and focus the external. You are that kind of wizard, but because you are "wasting" both internal and external energies you won't last long in a tournament. Keep in mind what you just did with me, the disarm, counts as one point, you need five points to win, let's play this out to show you what I mean, then we'll think about how we can actually try to get your energy levels under conscious control. Perhaps the others will have a thought over dinner."

They played out the bout but after two "points" Evan could barely raise his wand and Rackly wiped him out for five touches in a row. Rackly helped Evan to his feet.

"Come on Evan, it's dinner time and I want you to meet the rest of the team. We sit with each other at every meal, and not matter what you may think the first thing that you must understand about the team is that we are like the Musketeers all for one and one for all, we always support one another, and we ALWAYS stick up for the weak in the face of the strong. When you where able to pass through the doors to the practice room you proved that you are in your heart a good person who will always try to right a wrong and be loyal to your comrades."

With that Rackly lead him off to the dining hall. They entered the hall and saw that a group of the pure-blood first years had surrounded Rachel. Rackly took one look at the fierce look on Evan's face and nodded. "Let's show them that you don't pick on anyone with us present".

"YOU, what do you think you are doing to that girl!" Rackly stormed over to the first years and immediately took Rachel by the hand and pulled her up and walked her over to the dueling team table with Evan walking behind them.

"Ok, everyone listen up. I want you to meet our newest team-mate! Allright I am going to go around the table in a moment, but first we need to introduce you to the table."

At this point Evan noticed that in the center of the table was an emblem carved into the wood, within a shield was two crossed wands against an outline of Mt. McKinley.

"Evan place your wand over the seal, ok? Table please recognize Evan Schuler duly appointed and vetted member of the Denali Dueling Team."

A deep tolling voice rang out "Evan Schuler, you are accepted at the dueling table, you may ask the others what most of your privileges are, but the first and most important is that you are now allowed to invite those people closest to your heart to be permanent guests of the table, until by a majority vote the current members revoke that permission. Is there such a person that you would like to permit to sit next to you?"

Without thinking Evan looked over to Rachel and spoke. "Yes her name is Rachel Johnson."

"Evan Schuler, place your wand on the seal and introduce your friend to her new place in school." The table went silent, expectant.

"I, Evan Schuler, introduce and affirm as a friend and comrade Rachel Johnson."

"Miss Johnson, please place your wand on the seal to complete this."

Rachel looked at Evan, smiled shyly and placed her wand on the seal. The seal glowed brightly for an instant and a bell tolled. "Welcome to the Duelist's Table please be seated." The table then went quiescent.

"Ok, let's introduce you around, then we can go over with everyone what we did today, and we can then discuss a training method for you."

"JOHN RACKLY! How about letting the poor kids EAT something first?" Evan looked up to see that the reprimand had come from a dark haired girl who looked to be in her seventh year. "Hi kids, I'm Melissa Walters now the rest of the introductions, plans, and explanations can just wait until you have actually eaten something, so now eat!"

This was an order both Evan and Rachel were happy to comply with. As dinner was served Rachel kept looking around curiously, and noticed that most of the other students gave the duelists table a fairly wide berth, this was starting to puzzle her until one of the younger girls at the table noticed her observing the behavior.

"Hi, I'm Gwen, Tammy's my sister over there, obviously, she's the second year duelist. The other students are walking so far around us because of the protections on this table."

Rachel looked over in the direction that Gwen indicated her sister was in, and thought she was seeing double, it was blatantly obvious why she had said obviously, Gwen and Tammy where identical down to the same mischievous smile playing about their lips.

"What protections are on the table? I mean they introduced me just now, but what does that mean?"

"Well, no one is certain exactly what the introduction all entails, the table and "spirit of the dueling team" always seem to be pulling new tricks out of their metaphorical sleeves. Basically, you are now permanently allowed to sit at this table, that was the ceremony, and you are permitted to temporarily invite anyone you like to sit here with you, don't worry the table is spelled to accommodate any number of people, however for anyone you don't want you simply look at them and say you are not invited, and the table does the rest. You usually don't even have to say it, the table is really good at reading the moods of its occupants. Basically that means that anyone getting too close to our table without our express permission is fair game for the table to make an example of. The last example happened about two years ago and to this day when the moon is full Roy Atkinson looses all of his hair, and I mean ALL! Don't feel bad, at the time he was trying to beat a duelist to a pulp, he did enough damage that Veronica spent a week in the infirmary. The hair was the least of what he suffered for trying to hurt a member of this table within its observation she may have spent a week in the infirmary because of him, but the table broke all of his bones into small pieces, sort of like a shatter spell against the bones."

"so what happens to me if I sit at the table and nobody is here?"

"Absolutely nothing, that was the point of that little introduction that you went through."

"What did you mean when you said the spirit of the dueling team?"

"Well, I don't know if I can properly convey it, but the training area and the table seem to be a single benevolent intelligence. The best the faculty can explain is that because of what they learn in the dueling arena, the founders felt that the dueling team needs to be held to a high standard of entrance and recruitment. Those on the dueling team must be only those who would use the knowledge they gain for protection, and the greater good, the powers they unlock are too great to be casually permitted in the hands of those would seek to use them selfishly or wrongly. Anyway the founders put brains in the dueling arena and one of the first headmasters linked the arena with this table."

"Like the sorting hat in Hogwarts that my sister told me about? Though it isn't linked to a table, but it is an object with brains. You see there are four houses in Hogwarts, Slytheren …"

"I know about the houses of Hogwarts, they are fairly famous, but what about this hat?"

"The sorting hat of Hogwarts is enchanted to actually think and look into its wearer's head and heart. The hat decides what school house you will fit into best and yells out the name of the house you belong in. My sister described her sorting to me, and it sounded so weird. I mean the hat was on her head and said things like, not a huge amount of ambition, but a lot of loyalty and courage, certainly some brains in here, and then finally said, YES Hufflepuff. Turns out that hard work and loyalty were my sister's primary characteristics."

"What happened to your sister, and parents, do you mind telling me what happened to put you here? We don't usually see foreign students."

"My parents were muggles, they and my sister were killed by death eaters earlier this year. They murdered my parents and my sister. The only reason I am still alive is that I was at a friend's house that night. It was my first real sleepover party."

"I'm sorry."

"Anyway when I arrived the next morning I was greeted by a dozen ministry people, and they all wanted to make me a ward of the state. It didn't sound to pleasant and the many they had sent was this really pompous redhead who was acting like it was such an inconvenience to him that my parents and sister had been murdered. Well just about at the time that was going to have to go with him, headmaster Orinson popped in basically legally kidnapped me." Rachel had tears in her eyes but a small smile played on her mouth as she recalled the pompous windbag's reaction and how Orinson informed him that she was no longer his to deal with. Denali takes care of its own.

At the other end of the table Rackly was describing Evan's first practice to the rest of the team and asking for input as to how to improve their inductee. It was Melissa Walters that presented the problem and solution.

"He seems to have almost no feel for his own magical strength, and so will over use it and even exhaust himself without realizing it. Like those people who have lost feeling in their nerves, they are suddenly able to perform incredible feats of strength because they don't have the right feedback circuits that the rest of us do. This, like what Evan is experiencing, allows them to do damage to themselves without realizing it. I think Evan may have burnt out his natural awareness somehow, so he needs to teach himself how to monitor exactly how much energy he is putting into a spell…"  
Her gaze went out across the table and landed on Rachel.

"Rachel!, you are in all of Evan's classes right?"

"Er, yes."

"And you have nearly the same schedule, lunch dinner and the only thing you don't share is that you are free during his dueling training right?"

"I suppose so, why?"

"Perfect… OK Evan here is what I want you to do. First close your eyes and try to feel the people around you, then describe what you see, hear, feel taste whatever, I want to see if you are in tune with the magic around you, and if you can start to recognize people's signatures. Just relax, and let your mind drift, then I want you to think of Rachel."

Evan followed her instructions and let his eyes drift shut.

Suddenly Evan cocked his head to the side as if he were listening to something faint. A slow smile spread across his face. As he pointed to Rackly, Melissa, and Rachel in turn.

"D-major, A-minor, and C-Major. When I think of a person with my eyes closed I can sort of hear something like chords, and they are coming from where I remember you are sitting."

Melissa looked thoughtful at this, and signaled the entire table to get up, and shuffle seats.

Evan cocked his head to a side and pointed again at Rackly, Melissa and Rachel while speaking their names.

Melissa looked very satisfied.

"Ok, now I want you to place a light, a small one, next to where you hear Rachel."

Evan screwed up his face in concentration and a light suddenly appear over Rachel's right shoulder, unfortunately for anyone looking at her it had the intensity of a camera flash, but was sustained.

"EVAN!!! LESS POWER!"

Immediately it dulled to about a hundred watt bulb, still far to bright to look at comfortably.

"ok, less than that"

This continued until they got the light down to a soft light approximating a single candle.

Evan felt for the tune of the light and tried to match it to the chord coming from Rachel. He had this feeling that if they were somehow in the same key he could get the light to follow her.

"Rachel, try moving…"

As Rachel walked around the light did actually follow her, though it started getting progressively brighter when Evan started smiling.

As he noticed this he frowned in concentration and the light dimmed again.

Rackley looked at this smiling. "OK here is the next part of it, we are going to lend you and Rachel a pair of two way mirrors, so she can tell you whenever the light changes, the object is for you to always know how much power you are putting into a spell, to try and get a feel for the energy leaving you, even if you never know when you are going to run out at least we can help you put only the amount you need into a spell." As he handed the mirrors to the two first years he looked Rachel, "Now I want you to keep an eye on the light day or night, until he goes to sleep, basically anytime Evan is conscious I want that light to follow you around, and I want that light to maintain the same level."

Both kids nodded.

"Ok off to your afternoon classes then."

As the kids went off to their potions class Rackley headed off to the headmaster's office. At the door he extended his hand over the door knob. "Evan Rackley requesting entrance." The door then formed a face and looked him over for a moment.

"Evan Rackley, The headmaster will see you now." With that the door opened.

"Ah, Mr. Rackley, come on in. Have a seat, care for some tea?"

"No, Sir I'm fine, just had lunch."

"So, Mr. Rackly give me your thoughts on our newest dueler, and leave nothing out. Answer this question first though, is he a murderer?"

AN/ xayne Thanks for the kind review!

To anyone else reading… I can't get better unless I know what is wrong. So write a review…


	4. If you prick us, do we not bleed?

A/N

Hey all, Real life got a hold of me and just wouldn't let go… The whole work school family thing can really slow down a story's progress you know? Anyway I hope you enjoy the story!

DON'T OWN IT…. Wish I did.

Shattered Soul

Chapter 4

If you prick us, do we not bleed?

Denali School's staff meetings generally took place at the scheduling of the headmaster, which meant that they tended to be thrown together rather randomly. With a school and staff as small as Denali's most everyone generally knew what was going on already and teachers met informally in the lounge all the time to discuss teaching strategies and how the students are doing. Thus it was something of a surprise to have another staff meeting so quickly after the previous one, though it wasn't a surprised as to what the topic of the meeting was. Young Evan had passed the door test of the Dueling Team, and the team members had accurately diagnosed what is happening with Evan's magic. It was incomprehensible to the teachers that someone might be unable to feel how much magic they were using or how much they had left, but the evidence was certainly there. Nearly all applauded the unique solution of training that Melissa had thought up. There was some trepidation on the part of both Larry Tolten, and Robert Bergan, of Herbology, that Evan might loose control and blind someone in a moment of stress, before he realized that the spell was still active. This however was quickly shot down as no one could offer an alternative option in training, and Evan needed to be trained immediately. Not only was he a relatively powerful wizard the fact that he had no stops on his power meant that it could become a truly deadly problem. Nobody wanted to mention what would happen if in duress he tapped into power outside himself, as his potential indicated he would be able to.

Madam Tuttle looked confused though and turned to the Headmaster, "If we are trying to prevent Evan from over extending his gifts, why is the solution to put a constant drain on it."

"Right now the worry is that Evan seems to have no feel for how much energy he is expending, in simple terms he seems to have two speeds, stop and floor it. Having him keep a low level spell like a lumos constantly on, but at a low power level, will make him conscious of the magic leaving him. Even if he never develops a fuel gauge, to continue the analogy, we want him to have many more speeds than full forward. He has to learn to regulate the power he puts out, and he can only do that with constant practice at power regulation. This is a great way that has instant feedback, the brighter the light the more power he is putting into it, but making him put it over another person he has an objective viewpoint that can tell him when the light gets brighter, this again allows him to concentrate on the important thing, learning how the power drain feels and learning how to regulate it. The lumos spell is also low power enough that it shouldn't impact his other spells or power levels as a whole. It should be interesting to see if he learns to do two spells at once, or if he simply drops the lumos to cast other things. I think instinctively he will keep that spell running."

The healer thought this through before responding.

"So though there will be some drain on him in the short term we are trying to train him to prevent a much larger problem long term, I can understand that."

Professor Williams looked at his colleagues looking deep in thought, frowning he posed the questions no one really wanted to ask.

"Headmaster, we have potentially a very dangerous student on our hands shouldn't we be more concerned with the safety and well being of the school as a whole? I know that we have an obligation as educators to assist young Mr. Schuler, but shouldn't we be taking greater precautions than a handful of ideas from other students? Also sir with all due respect, just because the dueling room accepted him does not mean that he isn't a killer. He could still be an unconscious killer, and who knows what affect it will have on his psyche when he gets his memories back of that night. Can we really risk having a berserk talent of that magnitude run unchecked through our school?"

"Stephan, you raise some good points, but I fail to see what you are proposing? How is this young man any more of an emotional time bomb than any one of the dozen other "troubled youths" our fine school has played host to in the past? Would it ease your mind if young Evan were placed in counseling? We could bring in a mind healer from Montreal. Would that settle you?"

"Perhaps that wouldn't be a bad idea regardless of our notable pupil. I have seen several students in dire need of grief counseling, not the least of which is your young ward; Rachel still has not properly grieved for her family."

The staff meeting broke up but Orinson motioned to the potions master to stay behind.

"Stephan, you still have reservations?"

"I do Joshua. The boy is still in shock, and we haven't a clue as to what will happen when he finally breaks free of it. Those children he put in the hospital wing were only teasing Rachel, what happens if Young Evan is presented with physical or magical provocation?"

"We can only hope that he reacts with calm, but you are correct, under highly provocative circumstances he may indeed lash out in a destructive manner."

"How eloquently you put the fact that he may kill someone." The potions master commented wryly.

Evan looked at the two-way mirror that Melissa had given him, Rachel's face reflected back at him.

"Evan calm down you light has been getting brighter for the last hour. What is going on?"

"I've been trying to remember what happened. I'm sorry I keep better track of the spell." Evan was more than a little embarrassed. Rachel had had to call him from the library where she had been studying. Apparently some of the students had started to put on sunglasses, and the librarian was not amused. With slow deep breaths Evan closed his eyes and concentrated on the spell that he had cast. He heard it as a melody, and sure enough it was louder than he remembered it should be. While it was a conscious process he could not describe to anyone what it felt like to "quiet" the song. Within a moment Rachel reported the light was back into proportion. Up until then it had been a quiet day. He had actually been able to keep the light going both through his early morning work out and through his classes. When he wanted it to continue without concentrating on it he felt a shift in the spell structure, now all he had to do was make sure every now and then that he didn't over power the spell. All through classes he started closing his eyes to try and sense the magic around him. He was able to isolate the new spell that Professor Tolten taught them, and strangely enough was also able to identify Professor Rose's magical signature, while he showed them how to charm an apple to sing the national anthem.

When dinner came around the dueling team and their friends sat down to eat and plan out the remainder of the evening. Rackly stood up to address his fellows.

"OK folks let's eat right quick and then we can get to our nights practice."

Fitting actions to words he started shoveling a prodigious amount of food towards his face. The rest of the team shared a look of exasperation, and started to eat as well, though most with a bit more decorum. Melissa noted with amusement that every now and then Evan would get a look of concentration on his face and the light over Rachel's shoulder would change color. It seemed to be a game that they had started playing, she would name the color and Evan would try to get the light to match. Ultraviolet was actually quite neat and Melissa made a mental note to have Evan do a bunch of those lights at the next party the team had.

Less than half an hour later the team had finished dinner and started getting up to go. Rachel looked a little disappointed, until Melissa noticed.

"Hey come on, we don't mind observers if you haven't anything better to do come along with us."

The team gathered in the main training room of the dueling team's area and Rackly stood on the raised dueling platform to address them.

"OK team, I want everyone to complete their circuits, and after that we are going to hold a round robin, double elimination. The most kills tonight will win any one product from this new joke catalog I got by owl today." Rackly held up a colorful catalog with WWW embossed on the front. It was obvious that none of the students recognized the logo, but there had to be at least one thing in there that would be good to have so this was a pretty good prize.

Melissa turned to Evan "This is a pretty common thing, you'll find that we hold these tournaments about once a month and there is always some nice prize to be had. A long while back a previous captain started this tradition, since she came from this really wealthy family, she setup a fund so that the tradition could continue. Now every month we thank the Evelyn Munch fund for helping to motivate us a little more."

The team started off with stretching exercises and then quickly moved into a calisthenics routine. After that Rackly had them run four laps on the track. When everyone was done a scoreboard appeared above the strip that listed all of the team's names. Two names were immediately highlighted.

Rackly announced, "Ok, Mr. Aaron Carter vs. the lovely Miss Veronica Walsh. The rest of you work on your accuracy with the stinger balls until your name is called."

Though some people moved to the line of golf-ball like targets most of the duelers and friends surrounded the strip to see how this match up went. The two duelists faced off and saluted each other then turned and bowed to the judge (Rackly). As the two looked at each other over their wands the rest could almost see each of them going over a quick last minute strategy.

"Allez!"

The moment the match began both contenders threw a quick curse, and flung themselves to the right. Aaron tossed a tripping jinx, Veronica a stunner, both missing the mark by a fair amount. After that they began to volley curses back and forth either putting up a quick shield sidestepping the spell. Once the rhythm got established Veronica who conjured a large paper wall between them and immediately disillusioned herself broke it. This proved to be a very effective strategy as the moment Aaron vanished the wall he looked around franticly for his opponent. The moment he looked to the left of the strip a stunner came from the right and took him out cleanly. Veronica immediately summoned his wand with her off hand while covering his prone form with her wand.

"Veronica wins. Excellent Veronica, Aaron, what could you have done against her strategy? Anyone?"

Evan looked up at them, "Couldn't Aaron have attacked the screen with some kind of area effect spell? I mean she had to be behind the screen right?"

"Excellent! What spell would you have used?"

"We just learned that water charm that sprays out like a hose, couldn't you overpower that spell and make like a fire hose?"

Some of the pure blood kids looked a little confused at this, but their neighbors quickly explained the effect.

"Ok yes an overpowered 'aquos' charm would work, but remember what we were talking about earlier, using the right spell for the job, you don't use a lumos to blind an opponent you use solara, so in this case instead of aquos you would likely want to use the Poseidon curse, "Posidius". Watch the effect of is. As Rackly waved his wand in a horizontal slash and gave the incantation a wall of frothing water flew from him and impacted with a huge crash against the far wall.

"Remember always use the right spell for the job, in here during practice ask one of us if we know a spell that gives you the effect you are looking for. Sooner or later spell will become unneeded for you, but until you truly get an instinctive understanding of the magic you should try to use the right one for the job."

The evening went on like that, after each match a short critique would follow while the entire team would give suggestions for how various things could have been done better. When it was Evan's turn his bout was pretty short. He unfortunately tried something that didn't quite work.

As Rackly began the bout neither he nor his opponent Tammy Redding the second year duelist, raised their wands instead there was a heart beat where there were no spells or action. Evan immediately tried an experiment, he bent the magic to his will attempting to become invisible and soundless, he tried to do this be mimicking a disillusionment charm he had seen and tried to combine it with a silencing charm. What Evan hadn't counted on was the magic drain an untried and new spell combination would have on him. Almost as soon as he brought it up he got to take three steps then collapsed. When he came to, Tammy was handing him an energy potion, and giving him back his wand.

"OK. Everyone I want all of your opinions on this last duel. Obviously Evan lost, but why did he lose? Anyone?"

"I ran out of energy." Evan answered immediately.

"Yes, but that isn't why you lost, while that is exactly what happened that isn't the cause of your loss. Anyone?"

The group looked at each other until Tammy spoke up.

"He experimented during a dual when he didn't have to."

"That's it exactly. There is nothing wrong with using innovation during a dual, but Evan used an untried bit of magic the first thing in a dual. We should always try to surprise our opponents, but he had no experience with this kind of magic, and so didn't know how it would affect him. Next time you dual Evan, how about you try to actually start the dual and only if you get in trouble do you try the experimental stuff. In fact in a normal team dual I don't want you to get innovative for a while yet. I want you to learn how to dual first, then you will know when it is time to take a risk like this."

The rest of the practice passed without incident and it was a thoroughly exhausted Evan who made his way back to his room. He was so exhausted that he didn't notice seven people in dark clothing shadowing his route through school, so it was as he passed through one of the wider corridors that he heard a chorus of voices shout out.

"Reducto"

Please review! It makes my day bright!

Extra special thanks to my reviewers, xayne and Wind Whisperer. I hope you like it. I will definitely be trying to update more often.


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